LDR Leadership Labs

22/07/2025

When you feel stuck, give up! This is counter intuitive advice, and yet I’ve seen it work time and time again.

When someone comes to me for one-on-one coaching, they tend to be preoccupied with something. Often it’s been something that has been on their mind for months or even years.

They think the issue is a lack of data, but the issue is almost never data, it’s “efforting”.

They tend to think that they need more analysis, better strategies, expert advice.

But this is rarely what is needed. If it were, they would not feel stuck, they would simply go gather what they think they need.

By the time they feel stuck, they tend to have pretty good data, they’ve researched a multitude of strategies, spoken to a variety of “experts” and reviewed their analysis a few times.

Unfortunately, at this stage they are seduced by the idea of working harder to find the answer because that’s what they’ve been trained to do, but what if their “efforting” is the very thing that is keeping them stuck?

What if instead of trying harder, the best answer is to give up. Let go of the steering wheel.

It always delights me to see how much is resolved without any effort on our part, how many times a big problem doesn’t look like a problem at all once we settle, and how many fresh ideas simply occur to us when we don’t try so hard.

When we give up, motivation flows, inspiration heightens and action is taken effortlessly.

So to end where we started, when you’re feeling stuck, give up!

14/07/2025

We wrongly confuse our wants with our emotions.
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We say I want to leave my job because I’m no longer happy there, but these are two entirely separate phenomena.
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You may want to leave your job. You may want a new adventure. You may want to try something new. These are under the umbrella of wants and desires. These are part of your directional guidance system.
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You being unhappy has nothing to do with your job. You may be having some unhappy thoughts about your job but those have a lot less to do with your job than you think. They are simply letting you know that you’re caught up in some unhelpful thinking.
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Look less towards your emotions in the moment. These come and go, change in an instance and are a lot less solid than we make them out to be.
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Look instead towards your wants, the things that peak your curiosity, your creative flow and interest.
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And don’t worry, you won’t end up broke and indulging in every taboo urge that crosses your mind - you have a solid dose of common sense built into your system too!

14/06/2025

You are made to settle. You don’t actually need to do anything - no meditation, no nature, no morning walks, no journaling - though you might choose to do all or some of these.

But they are not required.

Have you noticed how these work some of the time, for some of us but not all of the time? That’s because these things don’t settle you, you settle you.

This is really good to know when you’re worked up, unsettled, stressed, overwhelmed, anxious, frustrated or whatever other state that might feel uncomfortable.

The fog always lifts. It’s how we’re designed.

Our only job, if you want one, is to notice. The system takes care of the rest.


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24/02/2025

13/01/2025

Today I turn 50.

It’s hard to reconcile my birthday age with the formless energy that feels like me.

My dad describes it best, your body gets older, it accumulates experiences, some aches and bruises, but the you who is truly you is always the same. It is untouched by age. It simply witnesses the years go by.

This feels incredibly true today.

While I reflect on the incredible life I’ve lived so far, I notice that there’s a part of me that feels just as young as I did when I was a child.

The little girl that ran around the park with suck joy and glee that she thought she might just burst out of her skin, is alive and well.

She is the me that is constant, ageless and indestructible.

Some people call it aliveness.
Some people call it presence.
Some people call it life force.
Some people call it God.

I like to call it the buzz of life. And it’s always the same, no matter what number is on my birthday cake.

So I leave you with this.

Can you feel YOU?

The You that is ageless.
The You that is infinite.
The You that is life.

As far as I can tell, this ‘You’ is what they call heaven on earth.

21/03/2024

"How are things with you?"

A common answer I hear from competent and successful women to this question is, "busy!"

Busy at work. Busy personally. Busy.

As someone that loves her work, has three kids that play rep sports, cares for her elderly parents and enjoys a social life, I understand the feeling of having multiple demands on my time.

I, like many of my friends, colleagues and clients, have the experience of feeling B.U.S.Y!

Other times however, despite the list of demands being the same, life seems to be balanced and taken care of. I effortlessly move from one thing to the next, without much thought about what I've done and what I still have to do.

I simply do what needs to get done, and when that's complete, I move to the next thing that occurs to me. I'm simply in the experience of "doing".

Once I started to notice that despite my circumstances, my experience could and was often different, I started to get really curious about the source of feeling busy!

Why was it that sometimes I felt busy and overwhelmed, and others at peace with all of it?

The multiple demands on my time and attention was the same, but my experience of these demands felt different. Why?

If my life wasn't the source of my "busy" feeling, what was? And what do I do about it when I notice it?

These are some of the questions we will be exploring in the Languishing to Thriving Mastermind.

This Mastermind is a small group program that I’m offering female leaders with a colleague and dear friend of mine, Jacqueline Chapman, a prior C-level executive, founder of Valeo Leadership and certified Coach.

Here are a few details:

>> Who is this program for?

The program is for women that are feeling stressed, overwhelmed and drained. They're ambitious, high achieving women, but they’re feeling the burden of taking it all on. They may be noticing that they have a shorter temper, growing doubts and insecurities, or a general sense of disengagement.

>> What will we explore together?

With a small group (max. 10) of women facing similar challenges we’ll explore the science and nature of high performance, doubts and fears, joy, self compassion and vitality.

>>How do I learn more?

You can learn more about the program in two ways.

1. Take a look at my website

2. Reach out to me directly to book a time to chat

If you're ready to approach work and life from a more grounded place, if you want to explore the source of flow and joy and want to do it in community, reach out.

29/11/2023

A week ago today, I sat with a group of amazing panelists to share thoughts, tips and advice on the important of wellbeing in leadership.

We talked about research backed benefits of offering ourselves grace and self compassion, how to feed our bodies, optimal movement programs and the benefits of meditation and nature.

The amazing group of leaders that attended brought a beautiful energy of possibility, inspiration and truth.

Thank you to everyone that came out.

20/10/2023

If I were to tell you; “you must do this”, “you should do that” or “you’ll have to effort your way through it”, do you feel excited about getting it done? Likely not. And yet, that’s what we do to ourselves, and then we blame ourselves for avoiding getting it done.

We have so much thinking about getting things done, that we exhaust ourselves before we even start.

18/10/2023

If you're feeling uninspired, what if you simply were ok with being in that place...until you found yourself out of that place. You might find that this alone would help.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​And all the crap our minds make up about it, is just that... crap our minds make up.

17/08/2023

One of my greatest joys in life has been to give back to my parents, whom have tirelessly, lovingly and selflessly given to me.

I love being a mom, and equally, love being a daughter that gets to repay just a little bit of what my parents have done for me.

Love you mama and papa.